Digital First for Annuities Initiative:

IRI is moving to a digital-first strategy that means adopting fast, modern, streamlined processes consistent across the Annuities industry for each step in the financial professional and consumer journey. Essentially, IRI is creating standardized rules of engagement for how the industry delivers essential data.

Position Summary

The Technical Standards Specialist will be responsible for creating, documenting, maintaining, and governing technical standards, including standards expressed in YAML, webhooks, and event-based formats. This role will translate complex technical requirements into clear, consistent, and usable documentation and standards for both technical and non-technical audiences, following established Digital First standards, formats, and style guidelines.

Working closely with internal teams, industry experts, members, and other stakeholders, the Technical Standards Specialist will help establish and maintain standards that are clear, scalable, well-documented, and aligned with industry needs. The ideal candidate combines strong technical aptitude with strong written and verbal communication, organization, and stakeholder-management skills.

Key Responsibilities

Standards Creation & Maintenance

• Create, document, and maintain YAML-based standards, event-based and webhook standards, schemas, configurations, and related technical specifications.
• Apply and maintain consistent technical structures, naming conventions, validation requirements, and documentation practices across Digital First standards.
• Review existing standards and identify opportunities to improve consistency, usability, clarity, and scalability.
• Manage version control and document changes throughout the standards lifecycle.
• Support the technical processes for reviewing, updating, and retiring standards.

Technical Documentation

• Create clear, accurate, and accessible technical documentation for standards, schemas, specifications, and related processes.
• Translate complex technical concepts into language that can be understood by both technical and non-technical audiences.
• Develop documentation, implementation guides, reference materials, FAQs, and other resources to support adoption of standards.

Industry & Stakeholder Engagement

• Work with subject-matter experts, members, technology professionals, and other stakeholders to gather requirements and understand industry needs.
• Facilitate discussions to clarify technical requirements and resolve differences in interpretation.
• Communicate technical concepts and proposed standards clearly in meetings, presentations, and written materials.
• Incorporate stakeholder feedback into standards and documentation while maintaining consistency and technical integrity.
• Support member-facing education and communications related to standards and implementation.

Quality & Governance

• Review YAML, webhook, and event-based documentation for accuracy, consistency, completeness, and adherence to established standards.
• Identify ambiguities, inconsistencies, or gaps and work with stakeholders to resolve them.
• Develop quality-control processes for standards and documentation.
• Maintain a centralized and well-organized repository of standards and supporting documentation.

Qualifications:

Technical

• Hands-on expertise with YAML, JSON, APIs, webhooks, event streaming, Git/GitHub, or similar version-control environments
• Understanding of structured data and schemas
• Experience creating or maintaining technical standards, specifications, schemas, or configuration files
• Ability to understand technical requirements and translate them into structured documentation
• Familiarity with documentation tools and version-controlled documentation

Communication

• Ability to explain technical concepts to non-technical audiences
• Strong editing and proofreading skills
• Comfortable working with external technical industry stakeholders
• Able to diplomatically challenge inconsistencies or unclear requirements